Van Halen have cancelled their planned 2012 European tour before the dates were even announced.

The cancelled dates have now been revealed as planning was so far down the line for the tour that the dates and venues were already locked in. There has been no reason given to promoters for the cancellation, simply that it was not going to go ahead.

Music website Melodicrock were the first to post the dates and the most interesting one is the June 10th date at Castle Donington's Download Festival.

However, since these dates were made public, Twitter has been inundated with posts from Melodicrock and Andy Copping, organiser of Download Festival. While Melodicrock claims that all the dates are real, Andy Copping has responded by saying that the Download date was fake and that he never scheduled the band to play at his festival next year.

Melodicrock wrote: "I feel as if I owe the fans to report what I hear and this info was 100% solid. As was past reports of select dates planned for this year. See...this kind of stuff happens from time to time but goes unreported. But with dysfunctional VH and their complete lack of communication..."

The reporter also got into a bit of a row with Copping after he wrote to the festival chief: "@Maverick_AC You're new to dealing with Van Halen right?" to which Copping replied: "@MelodicRock No, everyone else is."

Copping had earlier Tweeted a message claiming that the dates were "bollocks": "@VanHalenUK @MelodicRock That's brilliant, a tour that wasn't even booked, gets cancelled...ha ha ha! What a load of old bollocks!"

And he couldn't contain his anger later when a fan asked whether he had actually booked them or not? "@peterou812 NO! THEY WERE NOT BOOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"